Continuing the journey to the South Island

Since neither of us were in the mood for sightseeing in the city, we continued on to Wellington after a cozy wake up. We parked our van in the central Oriental Bay, where we also spent the night. We then headed straight to Crossfit. After a sweaty workout, we treated ourselves to a beer at the harbor.

For the next morning, we booked the ferry to the South Island. On the ship, we decided to check the weather for the upcoming days. To our horror, we found out that there would be several days of rain in the north and west. Therefore, we used the ferry crossing to optimize our route.
Upon arriving in Picton, we drove into the Marlborough Sounds. We found a nice (but very basic) campsite in a small bay.

On Saturday, we went hiking on the Queen Charlotte Track. The trail first led from the sea up to a ridge and then followed it with constant ups and downs. We had a beautiful view of the many coves and fjords.
Back at the campsite, the first thing we did was cool off in the water.
Afterwards, we went in search of green-lipped mussels that grew in the bay.
So for dinner, we had pasta with pesto and a pan full of mussels.

Since we couldn't completely escape the rainy weather, we opted for a weatherproof program: wine tasting. We drove to the area near Blenheim, where there were countless wineries offering tastings. The weather was much better than forecasted, so we were able to walk. With a few bottles of wine in the trunk, we continued towards Kaikoura the next morning.